Design
Design Research
At Nectar, we ensure that every product developed fulfills the needs of the end user and fits into an overall framework, system, or story. To understand the end user’s environment, we typically start with contextual research: quantitative and qualitative research, human factors and configuration studies, field surveys, and trending. They also help identify unanticipated issues in product usage and other latent needs that could demand the creation of additional products or features. Within each research phase, different tools could be employed, e.g., qualitative methods may include ethnographic observation, storyboards, user persona, task analysis, user interviews, and focus groups.
Industrial Design
Our design staff methodically researches product, use, and end user. After developing sketches, 2D layouts, and 3D models, we push design to the edge of art and function into the visual-tactile world of foam and paper mock-ups, rapid prototypes, and machined mock-ups. The results are designs that not only connect users emotionally with the product but also distinguish the client from their competition.
User Interface (UI) & User Experience (UX) Design
The digital market’s focus is the customer experience as reflected in user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). Today’s technological advances in UI design didn’t exist 10 years ago. Now we employ such capabilities as information architecture, work flow/task maps, wireframes/storyboards, graphical user interface, interactive prototypes, and software specifications. Capabilities that enable the creation of products that have tremendous UI/UX depth of usage and control. However, a major challenge in developing these products, which provides for a great user experience, is to design an intuitive user interface that visually prompts the user to operate the product’s features effectively without an overly complex interaction.
Branding
Today’s aggressive market, in the US and offshore — where rival products appear to sometimes blend or crossover — demands that corporate identity, e.g., packaging and website design and marketing collateral be quickly recognizable and uniquely distinguishable from the competition. At Nectar, we analyze your firm’s core values and product offerings, your mission and vision, and strive to express the essence of who and what you strive to be in order to compete successfully for customer attention and market position.
